The Genus Lacaena

Lindley 1843

The genus Lacaena was established by John Lindley, who published Lacaena bicolor in the Botanical Register in 1843. One species in the genus (L. spectabilis) was originally published in 1853 under the genus name Nauenia (then republished as Lacaena in 1854), and another species, (L. grandis), was moved to Bifrenaria in 1958.

Lacaena are large-growing epiphytic orchids with only a few species (bicolor, nicaraguensis, spectabilis, superbiens?) known from Mexico and Central America. Gerlach (1999) places it within the "Acineta-Verwandtschaftsgruppe," allied with Acineta, Lueddemannia, and Vasqueziella within the larger Stanhopinae Alliance.

According to Factopia, the name derives from a Greek adjective, meaning native of the ancient region of Lacedaemon (aka Laconia, Lakonías); one of the names of Helen of Troy (Lakaina), which was applied to this genus on account of its beauty).

The plants have ovoid, ridged pseudobulbs, each bearing 2-4 large, pleated leaves. The inflorescences begin from the base of the pseudobulbs and are always pendant, with fleshy, showy flowers hanging downward ("nodding") on a simple raceme. The dorsal sepal is free and the lateral sepals form a short mentum with the column foot. The petals are similar to the dorsal sepal but smaller. The lip is deeply 3-lobed, the lateral lobes are upcurved and the mid-lobe is spreading. The anther is imperfectly two-celled and there are two waxy pollinia, cleft, with viscidium and a prominent stipe. Dressler (1993a) has a line-drawing of the Lacaena pollinarium.

There is also a genus of butterflies that uses the same name, including Lacaena phlaeas, the "Small Copper."

- flowers are pale green with dark purple on the lip, and the stalk of the lip midlobe is about as wide as it is long. Sepals are 2-3 cm long, and the plants grow epiphytically to 70 cm in height (Dressler 1993b). Guatemala: on oaks, palms and pines in humid cloud forest, 1150 to 1950 m. (Ames & Correll 1985; Dix & Dix 2000).

Edward Sprague Rand (1876) Orchid Culture. New York: The Rural Publishing. [Orchids. A Description of the Species and Varieties Grown at Glen Ridge... A Complete Manual of Orchid Culture].
Link to this book at the Digital Orchid Library,
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/orchids. Lacaena on p. 295: Lacaena bicolor.